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Post‐partum depression and infant growth in a South African peri‐urban settlement
Author(s) -
Tomlinson M.,
Cooper P. J.,
Stein A.,
Swartz L.,
Molteno C.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
child: care, health and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.832
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1365-2214
pISSN - 0305-1862
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2214.2006.00598.x
Subject(s) - post partum , depression (economics) , peri , cape , demography , settlement (finance) , medicine , psychology , geography , pregnancy , biology , economics , genetics , archaeology , sociology , payment , macroeconomics , finance
Aim To examine the association between maternal post‐natal depression and infant growth. Background Infant growth has recently been shown, in two studies from South Asia, to be adversely affected by maternal depression in the early post‐partum period. It is uncertain whether a similar association obtains in developing countries outside Asia. Method A sample of 147 mother–infant dyads was recruited from a peri‐urban settlement outside Cape Town and seen at 2 and 18 months post partum. Results No clear effect of post‐partum depression on infant growth was found. Although maternal depression at 2 months was found to be associated with lower infant weight at 18 months, when birthweight was considered this effect disappeared. Conclusions Possible explanations for the non‐replication of the South Asian findings are considered.